Sunday, May 10, 2009

Rating : The iPod should have an easy button to adjust the rating for a song being played.

Synchronization : When the iPod is connected to my computer, it should synchronize automatically with the iTunes database of how many times a song is played, and how well it is rated.

Sharing : The iTunes (or the cool iLike application) should provide an easy way of sharing my favorite artists across to my friends on Facebook and on other social networking websites.

Proactive Recommendations : I should be able to gift and recommend tunes to friends on my social network. I should be able to receive their recommendations when I plug in my computer. This should happen by podcasts.

Remuneration : Based on my profile of likes and dislikes (and the frequency with which certain songs are played), iTunes should compute a pie chart which tells how a dollar of my money is distributed to several individual artists. If and when I decide to patronize artists (at the beginning of each month, for example) iTunes should compute the list of artists on my favorite list and transmit their share of patronizing money (how many cents out of the 10 dollars I give, for example). All the money should go directly to artists, not even a single penny should go to middlemen.

Recognition : The fact that I have spent money patronizing artists should be visible as a certificate on my Facebook profile. Certain physical certificates (posters, buttons, mugs etc) should also be sent to my postal address as a reward for my patronizing.

Concert Alerts : iTunes should automatically alert me to the concerts of my favorite artists when they are playing in a nearby town. iTunes should compile a list of gold members who patronized these artists, and if I am amongst them, I should get seats closer to the concert stage.

Personal Communication : iTunes should provide an easy way of leaving comments, blog-posts, pictures, videos and emails to my favorite artists. If and when an artist or fellow-fan replies to my comments, iTunes should alert me in the corresponding artist's tab when I open it.

Discovery (Passive Recommendations) : Based on my profile of likes and dislikes, iTunes (or the iLike application) should recommend me similar and upcoming artists. This way, I will be able to patronize new artists when they will be badly in need of financial support. The recommendation algorithm should employ both feature analysis of music and also statistical analysis of correlated correspondences like how Amazon does (if my friends on Facebook share musical tastes with me, their favorite artists should be recommended to me).

Mixing of media : I should be able to mix media and publish this work online. iTunes should automatically prepare a copyleft document (such as the Creative Commons license) which provides pointers to the individual artists who have contributed to the pieces inside my work. If a user likes my work and decides to patronize it, he/she should automatically be alerted to the various artists who contributed to portions of my work. The user then is provided the choice of default patronizing chart (that prepared by me) or according to his/her own decision.